The AP poll is has been the most consistent ranking system over the long history of college football. Going by the final rankings, what programs come out best? Here are the top programs of the 1960s according to a CFN formula using all the AP’s final polls.
Follow … @ColFootballNews
Top Teams Of The … 1930s | 1940s | 1950s
1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s
With three national championships in five years, and several other good seasons, Alabama was the program of the 1960s earning the top spot among the ranking of the best college football teams.
Texas made a push with two national titles, and Arkansas managed to tie for second despite not winning an AP national championship, but it was the decade of Roll Tide.
How does this work? Taking all the AP final rankings, CFN devised a scoring system giving every AP national champion 25 points, the No. 2 team 24, No. 3 23, and so on down to the bottom.
1960 AP National Champions
1960 Minnesota
1961 Alabama
1962 USC
1963 Texas
1964 Alabama
1965 Alabama
1966 Notre Dame
1967 USC
1968 Ohio State
1969 Texas
1960s AP Rankings Greatest Teams
These rankings are created according to the CFN scoring system – this isn’t the official AP ranking of its all-time greatest teams.
RANK | TEAM | POINTS |
1 | Alabama | 138 |
T2 | Arkansas | 118 |
T2 | Texas | 118 |
4 | Ohio State | 106 |
5 | Notre Dame | 105 |
6 | USC | 102 |
7 | LSU | 101 |
8 | Penn State | 99 |
9 | Missouri | 93 |
10 | UCLA | 91 |
11 | Mississippi | 86 |
12 | Purdue | 80.5 |
13 | Michigan State | 77 |
14 | Nebraska | 76 |
15 | Tennessee | 67 |
16 | Minnesota | 61 |
17 | Oregon State | 58 |
18 | Oklahoma | 56 |
19 | Auburn | 50 |
20 | Navy | 46 |
21 | Georgia | 40 |
22 | Kansas | 34 |
T23 | Georgia Tech | 31 |
T23 | Michigan | 31 |
25 | Colorado | 29 |
others receiving votes | ||
SMU | 28 | |
Wisconsin | 24 | |
Illinois | 23 | |
Iowa | 23 | |
Duke | 22 | |
Houston | 22 | |
Indiana | 22 | |
Pittsburgh | 22 | |
Florida | 20 | |
Washington | 20 | |
Wyoming | 20 | |
Syracuse | 18.5 | |
Miami, Fla. | 17 | |
Utah State | 16 | |
Baylor | 14 | |
Yale | 12 | |
Rutgers | 11 | |
New Mexico St | 9 | |
West Virginia | 9 | |
Arizona | 8 | |
Rice | 8 | |
Stanford | 7 | |
Ohio | 6 |